The big rain event came pretty early this year with torrential fall overnight on May 5-6 when we got 250+ mm. Last year it didn't happen until May 29.

Interestingly, it was purely an east coast thing with the rest of the island remaining dry. There was a pretty innocuous looking low on the charts but nothing to suggest what was coming.


rain chart is just for May 6 - started raining around 9pm on May 5

Haven't had a repeat performance, but it has rained every night since - 5-24mm range. Tonight there's a fair bit of activity on the radar again and looks like it could develop further as well. Continuing that pattern where it's isolated to the east coast and mainly rains at night. CWB has us at 40% and Ilan at 30%! I would have thought the lowest you would go for Ilan ever would be 70%

This is the next radar image. it does seem to be intensifying and following the same pattern it did the night of the deluge where it crept down the coast. rain has picked up here - still fluctuating, but definitely has a bit of 'oomph' in it when it comes. Surely we couldn't get a repeat of the other night - assuming that was a mei yu one-off. Interesting how although the weather seems to be moving from west to east as per normal mei yu - it's only forming rain when it reaches the east coast. quite different from last year.

Rained heavily here late last night, and it looks like we may have gotten in the 20-25 mil range. Today looks like it's going to be a muggy, humid one, and tomorrow looks the same before a front comes through sometime Sat. or Sun., although the forecasts for that front have been changing daily.

It's brilliant out at the moment, a lovely evening after a horribly humid day. But it looks like we could be in for some more mei yu before the weekend is over. We should enjoy this break while it lasts.

yeah, got the clothes washing done! will be interesting to see what that front is packing. Assume it will be more your traditional mei yu front with the biggest rain in the west and north.

Not sure if this is a significant part of the mei yu process but noticed a decent build up of cumulionimbus out to sea today. You mentioned that it looked like rain and it felt like it should, it was so muggy, but i don't think we get much from that kind of weather - not like pingdong where it's probably a sure sign! Some nice lightning out to sea tonight.
Thinking of doing a driftwood market run to taipei this weekend - this is one of the trickiest times of the year to pick the gap up there. Get it wrong and it's not just a shower or two - it's a complete wash-out and then you run the risk of the su hwa being closed as well.

Seems to be a big stationary front dropping in on the weekend - just a matter of will it hold off for saturday at least.

It sure looks quite dicey at the moment. It is interesting how the rain tends to skirt our area, especially given images like those below.

It's very windy in Zhiben at the moment and very dark south of here.

Even so, CWB has gone for 10% POP (!) for taidong today. i would have thought that was a very bold call given the radar pics.
Strange weather this morning - felt like a cool change was blowing through but when i went outside the wind was coming from the south and the clouds are rushing across the sky. Guess it will swing into the ne later.
And it really does look like we will get some rain from this - trip to Taipei is looking more unlikely.

just checked our weather wiki - may 12 was the date of the huge mei yu that knocked out the su hwa for several weeks last year and stranded me up in taipei - so we are right in the zone for another one.

and yeah, it's a pretty ominous looking sky - the way those clouds are moving it's almost typhoony.

We're getting some serious lightning in Zhiben. It looks like we could be in for a real soaker, especially if this front stalls and moisture starts coming in from the south.

not bad for 10% POP! They did belatedly raise it to 30, but by then it was already pouring - at that stage you could safely say 100.

Meanwhile, a bit of respite here and the sun is actually shining through from the west, though bands of rain clouds out to sea.

CWB is warning of heavy rainfall over the next two days and by the looks of this RADAR shot it's going to happen.

Some of the worst flooding we experienced living in Pingtung was during the meiyu rains. Looks like they're in for it this year. No telling at this point what we'll get here.

Yeah, this looks like it's shaping up as the big one as far as the mei yu season goes. Those are vicious looking radar images and a lot more of it seems to have made it across to the east coast than i would have expected, so we could be in for a drenching as well. Great lightning show tonight. A lot of it happens on the other side of the coastal range and you can hear that thunder reverberating up the rift valley for well over ten seconds.

Amazing cloud formations this afternoon and at one stage it was raining heavily while the sun was shining brightly in the west. Spectacular rainbows and sunsets are also features of the mei yu.

This is one of the great moments in Taiwan's weather calendar chappening right at the moment.

CWB is still calling this 30% pop which has to be gross incompetence when you look at the radar. in fact, forget the radar, just look out the window.

a couple of dry days with dbjf today. the 'great mei yu event' was a bit overrated in the end with big falls confined mostly to the central range, where they always get it anyway.
activity seems to have switched to the east coast tonight and there might be something building.

Have seen have seen this formation a few times in the past month - most dramatically during the deluge a few weeks back - but can't remember seeing it much before that. just off-shore from us at the moment, but it moves in a fraction then we could get some serious rain.

This one is intriguing coz it seems to be forming a channel up from the ppe - almost following the line of the black current.

It looks like we're going to have much the same weather pattern today.

this might be the end of the mei yu. three dry days in a row and nothing on the horizon. ridiculously hot today - amazing how quickly you can go from wishing for a break in the rain to wishing it would rain.

Yea, it looks like that's it. There's a 'cold' front supposedly coming through in a few days, but I'm not expecting anything out of that. I've also noticed the huge cumulonimbus clouds forming off the coast. It is June in a couple days, after all.

yeah, i would hate to see the 'hot front'.

Bring on the typhoons! A small low pressure going through mid ppe at the moment and maybe another behind it, so there is finally some hint of activity.

looks like there might be an encore performance from the mei yu with another stationary front settling in over Taiwan (was originally forecast to drift north). And another low pressure building near palau. Could be worth watching.
Tues night here maybe, then wed thurs could be good chances of rain, especially if the low comes into play.

apparently it was a wild day of weather in taipei today which included hale stones (yes, hale stones - only the third time in recorded history) and typhoon strength winds that blew rooves off houses. almost sounds like tornado conditions. wonder if any of that will make its way down here. still dead calm at the moment, though a decent lightning show out to sea in the south east.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201306040026.aspx

I wasn't aware that was only the third time for hale in recorded history. We had a hale storm in Kaohsiung City, middle of the city, in 1992 or 93, and these were not tiny little stones. They were at least 1/2 inch in diameter. I was shocked.

We could end up with some very strange weather over the next few days. If this system SE of us comes into play and this front becomes stationary, we may get some serious rain.

yeah, that's a potentially volatile mix. A lot going on in that sat. That low is starting to gather but there are still plenty of stray disorganixed bits that could feed into the front. Planning another market run this weekend - fluked the only two dry days they'd had in a month last time, but this might be pushing my luck.

Great thunder sountracks to your daily life at the moment. Not close, but long rolling, slightly foreboding rumbles. And for the last two days they've been going all day and night.

Apart from anything, it's just nice to steal a couple more days of not full brutal heat even after the dial has been turned to summer.

"I was shocked."
And so you should have been. I imagine they are even rarer in Kaohsiung. I've never seen it before in Taiwan - still haven't. Think the last event in Taipei was around the same time that you mentioned.

technically, you could say this is still mei yu coz there is a stationary front over taiwan, but the substantial falls we had overnight are probably more to do with a developing low pressure to the south west of us. anyway, we'll take it anyway we can get it - been hot and stifling so the rain is very welcome - about 70mm and counting.